Heat just looking for one more win

MIAMI - Amid all the ramblings about pressure, poise, adjustments and the countless other ways to dissect a playoff series, Dwyane Wade cut right to the point.

"One game to win," Wade said. "That's all we've got to do."

Sounds so easy.

By now, the Miami Heat know it's anything but - especially against the never-say-die Detroit Pistons.

One win separated the Heat from an Eastern Conference crown a year ago against Detroit, but two chances slipped away as the Pistons rallied to defend their title. That one win eluded Miami again Wednesday, when Detroit played perhaps its best game of the series, won 91-78, and forced a Game 6 today.

"I think the pressure's been on them," Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter said. "They were up 3-1. We're supposed to be dead right now."

So, it's back to Miami, where the Heat hope to celebrate their first trip to the NBA Finals - and the Pistons, who ended the Heat's season on their home floor a year ago, will fight to force a winner-take-all Game 7 at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Sunday.

If either side is panicking, they're hiding it well.

"You get three bites of the apple, basically," Heat coach Pat Riley said Thursday. "Usually on the first one, you want to try to gobble the whole thing if you can.

"But we didn't. They came out with a bigger bite than us and sharper and tougher. And we get opportunity No. 2 at home to close it out."

MAVERICKS: Dallas backup center D.J. Mbenga was suspended without pay for six games for going into the stands to aid the wife of coach Avery Johnson during Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in Phoenix.

The punishment is one game longer than New York Knicks forward Antonio Davis received in January for going from the court into the stands to defend his wife.

Mbenga was on the bench in street clothes, having been made inactive for Tuesday night's game, when he joined team owner Mark Cuban and other team officials in going to the aid of Cassandra Johnson when she was involved in a first-quarter confrontation with fans.